Stickine nodded sympathetically. "Then I'll come down a hundred, but we can't take less. I've got to do the square thing by the boys."
The Commander sat still again, and Appleby could not quite understand the expression of his face. Then he said, "I should be taking a risk. You're not fond of us, anyway, and even you mightn't know all the reefs."
Stickine stood up very straight and grim. "You've just got to trust me, as we'll trust you for the pay. We wouldn't have made that deal with you unless we knew we could put it through."
"Sit down," said the Commander with a little smile. "We'll make it a deal. Take us out, and you'll get your dollars. Put us ashore and we'll shoot you. It's quite plain you're taking a few risks too. And now if you will join me in a glass of wine."
Stickine nodded, and laughed silently as he held up his glass. "I'm taking those dollars from you, as you'd have taken the pelts or the schooner from us, if you had the chance, and that makes us square," he said. "Every man to his own business, but that's no reason he should hate the folks who are now and then too much for him."
Ten minutes later and Appleby and the rest were in the boat pulling for the Champlain with a note asking Jordan to send the Indian across to the steamer.
CHAPTER XVII
THE PLEDGE REDEEMED
The light was slowly creeping through the mist when Appleby, who had returned with two of the Indians, sat with Stickine in the gunboat's cabin. It was very early in the morning, and though there is no actual darkness in those seas at that season, the haze provided a very good substitute, and now it was sliding past as thickly as ever. Appleby also felt clammy all through, for they had had a hard pull from the schooner against a freshening wind, and nobody is very vigorous at four o'clock on a very cold morning. He shivered a little as he sat with a steaming cup of coffee before him watching his companions. Their faces showed curiously pallid in the dim light, and Stickine's was grave, while the two Americans appeared more than a little anxious. Outside the wind was wailing through the rigging, and every now and then there was a jarring grind of cable as the gunboat swung up her bows.
"You believe we had better make a start right now, and you can pick up the passage?" asked the Commander.